It is known that the operation of sublimatic thermoprinting of fabrics consists of transferring from a paper support to a fabric drawings made with coloring materials so that under special temperature conditions they undergo the sublimation process, that is they are transferred directly from the solid state to the vapor state and rapidly they recondense again to the solid state.
At the present state of the art two types of machines are employed for the sublimatic thermoprinting: they are the calender and the press. The calender is employed for the thermoprinting in a roll called "in rotolo" in which the printing paper and also the fabric are unwound from respective bobbins, go through rollers continuously to a reciprocal contact in order to achieve the transfer of the drawings by sublimation. This manner of operation is utilized for the thermoprinting of repetitive designs which does not require a particular position on the fabric such as for instance designs for fabric with lines and similar designs.
The press is used for the thermoprinting of pieces of pre-cut material with designs placed or not placed and substantially is constituted by a fixed plane and a mobile cover between which are placed in reciprocal contact, the piece of the fabric to be printed with the corresponding printed sheet, in order to achieve the transfer of designs by sublimation.